Food History Happy Hour: Blood Orange & Celery Gin

Thanks to everyone who joined me last night for Food History Happy Hour live on Facebook. This week we used the celery gin I made last week in a choose-your-own-adventure cocktail! Although I could not find any historic references to celery gin, I did find celery bitters, and several other gins that were made by steeping botanicals in gin, including tansy, wormwood, and pine log slivers (yes, really). 

We discussed historic sauces, peanuts and soybeans, tomatoes, the reasons why flavor extracts and bitters are only available in grocery stores, not liquor stores, ramps, victory gardens, I showed off some of my new cookbook acquisitions, and we discussed comparisons between now and historic pandemics.

Celery Gin Recipe

I wasn't sure how the celery gin was going to turn out, so I used a half pint jelly jar to make mine.

Washed celery leaves and tops
gin to cover

Place celery leaves and tops in a mason jar small enough to hold them so that they mostly fill the jar. Cover with dry gin, screw on lid, and store in a cool dark place for 24-48 hours. Remove celery and discard. Gin will keep indefinitely.

Blood Orange Celery Gin Cocktail

Juice of one blood orange
1/2 to 1 teaspoon sugar
1 ounce gin

​Shake over ice and serve in a cocktail glass.

Cocktail recipe for "Celery Sour," containing celery bitters from "The Complete Buffet Guide, or, How to Mix All Kinds of Drinks" by V. B. Lewis (1903).

Recipe for "Gin and Pine," from "The Complete Buffet Guide, or, How to Mix All Kinds of Drinks" by V. B. Lewis (1903). For the recipe for Gin and Tansy as well as Gin and Wormwood, click the image and it will take you to the correct page.

And here we have a few of the inspirations for this week's choose-your-own-adventure cocktail, from "The Complete Buffet Guide, or, How to Mix All Kinds of Drinks" by V. B. Lewis (1903).

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